1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a character generator, and more particularly to a character generator applied to an electronic information apparatus such as a word processor, a computer, an electronic notebook and the like for generating character patterns from character structure information sharing strokes of radical ("bush") portions of kanji characters (Chinese characters) and like characters.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, the electronic information apparatus such as a word processor, a computer, an electronic notebook and the like comprises a character generator for generating a character font of high quality. However, the character font is generated by reading font data expressing character contours from a font memory which stores the font data corresponding to various characters. For this reason, the amount of data in the font memory is extremely large. In order to solve this problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication SHO 63(1988)-70290 has disclosed a character pattern synthesizer and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication HEI 4(1992)-340590 has disclosed a character font output device, for example.
According to the character pattern synthesizer disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication SHO 63(1988)-70290, a plurality of partial patterns (parts) made of a combination of strokes are synthesized to define a character pattern in one typeface, and positions and sizes of the synthesized partial patterns are corrected to produce a well-balanced character pattern. Accordingly, it is possible to store and share partial patterns for each stroke and to adjust the shapes of partial patterns and a balance with other partial patterns.
According to the character font output device disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication HEI 4(1992)340590, character components such as a line of one stroke, a point thereof and the like and components forming common portions such as radicals are hierarchically stored as parts. Parts are combined according to the shape of characters, and also characters themselves are utilized as parts for other characters, thereby to generate a character font.
According to the character pattern synthesizer disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication SHO 63(1988)-70290, however, generation of character data corresponding to a plurality of typefaces is not taken into consideration, and character data generated in typefaces other than that stored in character data have a problem in respect of the shapes of the partial patterns and the balance.
According to the character font output device disclosed in the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication HEI 4(1992)-340590, the components such as lines of strokes, points thereof and the like and the components forming common portions such as radicals are simply combined to generate characters. For this reason, the shape of a radical portion is not always restored to fit in a generated character. Consequently, there is a problem that the character is degraded.